Tuesday, December 27, 2005

I Just Don't Get It

I've been careful to stay away from the whole Slifkin controversy. But the recent RCA letter (Hat Tip: Hirhurim) made me think a little. The RCA claims that belief in evolution is not heresy. Others believe it is. I don't need to rehash that which has been completely beaten into the ground and dealt with in a much better capacity by farmorequalifiedbloggers.

I'm no expert on evolutionary biology, and I haven't taken a science course since high school. But let's think this through for a minute. Evolution is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific field. The support for evolution seems be just as great as for gravity.

Let's assume evolution was proven beyond a reasonable doubt (some say it already has been). According to those who believe such a belief is heretical, are we required to ignore our senses? Does Halacha expect us to deny the reality and just move on based on faith? I'm not sure I follow.

The idea of heresy seems to only make sense when we have different alternatives, all of which are plausible. Faith should help us choose between those choices and reject the others. But when one choice is supported by the overwhelming evidence, should faith contradict reason? Is that what the Slifkin banners expect?

Faith should not be the basis of a world view. It should only supplement reason. Do the Slifkin banners disagree?